The Dilemma of Supporting Syria’s Brutal Rebel Fighters

*(Via NY Times) – The Syrian rebels posed casually, standing over their prisoners with firearms pointed down at the shirtless and terrified men.

The prisoners, seven in all, were captured Syrian soldiers. Five were trussed, their backs marked with red welts. They kept their faces pressed to the dirt as the rebels’ commander recited a bitter revolutionary verse.

“For fifty years, they are companions to corruption,” he said. “We swear to the Lord of the Throne, that this is our oath: We will take revenge.”

The moment the poem ended, the commander, known as “the Uncle,” fired a bullet into the back of the first prisoner’s head. His gunmen followed suit, promptly killing all the men at their feet.

This scene, documented in a video smuggled out of Syria a few days ago by a former rebel who grew disgusted by the killings, offers a dark insight into how many rebels have adopted some of the same brutal and ruthless tactics as the regime they are trying to overthrow.

As the United States debates whether to support the Obama administration’s proposal that Syrian forces should be attacked for using chemical weapons against civilians, this video, shot in April, joins a growing body of evidence of an increasingly criminal environment populated by gangs of highwaymen, kidnappers and killers.

One Response

So let me see if I’m getting this! Some people in the nations capitol think that, by having the U.S. wade into the Syrian shooting and killing, with more shooting and killing of our own, is the way to establish a peaceful government among shooters and killers?!?!?

I may be losing my mind, but it seems to me that if people shooting and killing each other, are joined by more people shooting and killing, the only thing that is certain to happen is, more people will die. When you have people who are bitter, fighting for power, against those who are in power, but who are not fair, you cannot change anything with the use of weapons. If either side wins, any idea of fairness will suffer. Meaning that any possibility for a rule of law to prevail or emerge is hopeless.

Want to do something? Well, you go in with an international coalition, force a peace under a provisional gov’t. Then make all warring factions, make their case before an international body of some sort. The party that makes the best case, including plans how they will run the country, will be awarded control by the provisional gov’t.

Superior forces says fighting is wrong, stop it or no one wins. There is a rule of law and these differences will have to be hashed out in a courtroom, not on a battlefield. End of story.

Otherwise anything else lead to complete and utter chaos, so it is best advised that if shooting and killing or aiding and abetting the same, is our only plan, it’s best we stay at home, contribute nothing to the carnage and watch. Because, whoever wins will still need contracts and contacts with the outside world, so perhaps something can be negotiated that way.

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